Mammut pacificus sp. nov., a newly recognized species of mastodon from the Pleistocene of western North America

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Paleontology and Evolutionary Science

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Introduction

Methods

Radiocarbon dating methods

Results

Systematic paleontology

Diagnosis

Description

Cranium

Mandible

Tusks

Dentition

Vertebrae

Sacrum and pelvis

Femur

Discussion

Comparison of Mammut pacificus to other named species of Mammut

Biogeography

Conclusions

Supplemental Information

Mammut pacificus tooth measurements.

Measurements (in mm) of Mammut pacificus specimens examined in this study.

DOI: 10.7717/peerj.6614/supp-1

Mammut americanum tooth measurements.

Measurements (in mm) of Mammut americanum specimens examined in this study.

DOI: 10.7717/peerj.6614/supp-2

Additional Information and Declarations

Competing Interests

Eric Scott is employed by Cogstone Resource Management. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Author Contributions

Alton C. Dooley Jr conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.

Eric Scott conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.

Jeremy Green performed the experiments, analyzed the data, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.

Kathleen B. Springer performed the experiments, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.

Brett S. Dooley performed the experiments, analyzed the data, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.

Gregory James Smith authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.

New Species Registration

The following information was supplied regarding the registration of a newly described species:

Publication LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:21ED43A5-6102-4D44-80C1-7D7A3D4651EA.

Mammut pacificus LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:BE79F9B4-1D49-415D-A250-6FB951CF81F6.

Data Availability

The following information was supplied regarding data availability:

Maximum length and width measurements of individual teeth are available in Files S1 and S2.

Remains of Mammut from California: https://www.morphosource.org/Detail/ProjectDetail/Show/project_id/687.

Funding

This project was funded by the Western Science Center and through a crowdfunding campaign at experiment.com. Donors included Michael D’Emic, Timothy Dooley, Stephanie Drumheller-Horton, Andy Farke, Ed Formica, Linda Freeman, Fred Henning, Tamara Kauffman, Naomi Kritzer, Travis Lumpkin, Aaron Martin, Gil Newton, Erik Ozolins, Karen Portzer, Darla Radford, Nick Reeves, Amanda Reinke, Jason Schein, Lance Schnatterly, Rose Schooff, Rachel Silverstein, Katy Smith, Brittney Stoneburg, Jeanne Timmons, Eric Damon Walters, Cindy Wu, and the Order of the Eastern Star Tahquitz-Victoria Chapter. This project was also funded in part by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Land Resources Climate Research and Development Program through the Paleohydrology of Desert Wetlands project. There was no additional external funding received for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

 
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M. americanum establishes that Mammut is an it, not a he. Therefore, ICZN Article 31.2 – "A species-group name, if it is or ends in a Latin or latinized adjective or participle in the nominative singular, must agree in gender with the generic name with which it is at any time combined." – automatically corrects "M. pacificus" to M. pacificum. The authors & date remain the same, no publication of a...

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